On Thursday morning, our tour guide in Normandy did show up -- and he was well worth the money. Francis was on time and the tour was great. I had re-read Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day" -- some point soon we have to watch the movie -- so it was good having that relatively fresh in my mind. Carol and the girls loved the tour as well -- Torie said it was the best and most interesting tour she's ever been on.
For anyone planning a trip to Normandy and are looking to hire a guide, Francis's email is francispaz@hotmail.fr. We would strongly recommend hiring a private guide if you can afford it -- Francis took us places we would not have found on our own, and even places we would not have gone as part of a larger group tour. Sitting in the front seat next to him, I was able to pepper him with questions much more easily than if we were part of a larger group. Not only did we talk about D-Day during the car rides, but also about Normandy overall, France, the US, and sports. It turns out he has guided Tim McCarver, Curt Schilling (as a Yankee fan: ugh!), and is going to guide Tony LaRussa -- so he's trying to learn more about baseball. American football is much easier for him to understand!
Francis's English was very good (better than Tim McCarver's! -- just kidding), and since his teachers were British, he spoke at times with an English accent, and other times with a French accent. He admitted he couldn't pronounce cemetery, although my personal favorite of the words he struggled with -- obstacle, which he pronounced as "obsteakale." (By the way, this is written fondly -- great guy who spoke very clear English -- I sure was not going to correct him on the three or four words he mangled the pronunciation.) He clearly has a passion for D-Day history and stories -- he especially loves guiding veterans of the landing, who are becoming fewer and fewer.
After a quick stop in d'Isigny to see some memorials, and learn trivia that Walt Disney's ancestors were John d'Isigny and Hugo d'Isigny (Anglicized to Disney), we went to Sainte-Mere-Iglise, famous as the first town liberated by American paratroopers on D-Day. Francis gave us quite the detailed explanation of the fighting around the church, including the story of John Steele (caught by his parachute on the steeple, he played dead for several hours), Sergeant Ray, who saved the lives of Steele and another American despite the fact Ray was fatally wounded, and the house fire that made the situation even worse for the off-course paratroopers.
It was market day in the town, so we walked around that for a short time, and enjoyed the best, and least expensive, chocolate croissants we've had on the trip.
We hopped back in the car and headed for Utah Beach. We drove up the first of the causeways used by the troops to get through the flooded fields inland and start the long campaign to liberate France. Normandy is very friendly and pro-American. There are American flags (and tourists) everywhere. In Paris we saw many tourists from Asia. Here there were few, if any. I might be wrong, but foreign tourists were probably 60% American, 30% British, 9% other, and 1% German.
We spent some time on Utah Beach in the same spot that Theodore Roosevelt III (better known as Jr., although his father the President was actually Jr.) spent time directing the troops even though they had landed in the wrong spot because of the tides (and the British boat pilots!). After his talks, Francis gave us some time to walk the beach. There were a few tourists, and even a few families swimming in the English Channel. Unlike D-Day morning, it was high tide, so we didn't get the sense of the width of the beach until later at Omaha Beach.
It's funny -- now I can't remember whether we went to famed church in the very small town of Angoville au Plain next or to Pont du Hoc. I think we went to the church, so I will tell that part now. There is a book -- Angels of Mercy -- written about the two medics, Robert Wright and Ken Moore, who saved the lives of 77 American and German troops, and French locals. I've got to read that book. Francis told us the story of the fighting back and forth -- first the Americans took the village, then the Germans swept back, and then the Americans finally secured it.
When the Germans came into the church and saw the medics working on the wounded regardless of nationality, they left the medics alone to do their work. The church has stained glass windows honoring the medics and the paratroopers who liberated the town. Three soldiers died in the church, and Francis described how the church was divided into three zones -- the less wounded, the badly wounded, and the mortally wounded. Blood stains from the wounded can still be seen on the pews, and part of the stone floor is broken from where a mortar dud crashed through the church roof and dropped harmlessly.
From Wikipedia:
Two stained glass windows commemorate the 101st Airborne Division, the first one is dedicated to the two medics of the 2nd Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division). The second one honoured the American parachutists.(It should say "honors" --"honoured" is past tense and the windows are still there).
More info on the medics can be found here: http://www.screamingducks.com/Page01-RaV-Med0001.html
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